Monday, 27 October 2014

On September 27, 1979 street photographer Foncie Pulice took his last picture. Foncie and his Electric-Photo camera had been a familiar sight on Vancouver, BC, city streets for 45 years, having begun as a 20-year-old back in 1934 as an assistant to street photographer Joe Iaci. In his career he took millions of photographs.

When he started in 1934, Pulice recalled that “there were six companies in Vancouver, but when we really started to go was during the war. The public couldn’t get film, you see, so the street photographers were all they had. Servicemen would come home on leave, they’d have pictures taken. Families would get together, we’d take their picture. At one time, I was taking 4,000 to 5,000 pictures every day.”My parents had their photo taken by Pulice about a month before they were married in 1943 while my Dad, in uniform, was on leave from the Royal Canadian Air Force and my Mom was wearing her fur coat.They were both only 22 years old.

Did he save all those millions of negatives? They’d likely be worth a small fortune now. “I never did,” he said. “I didn’t really think about it at the time. I’d keep ’em for a year, then throw ’em out. I realize now I should have saved them, but it’s too late.”

People even made appointments for street pictures! “Oh, yes. They’d phone ahead and tell us what time they’d be walking down Granville. Dr. Peter Bell-Irving had members of his family photographed every year. I have shots showing one little tyke in that family growing all the way up to six-foot-five.”

Pulice says that one of the reasons he got into street photography was because he wanted to meet girls. He had a whole wall of phone numbers up on his wall and beside every number he put a little description of the girl. He used to get calls from other fellows saying, ‘Hey, Foncie, you know all the girls--can you fix us up with dates?”

Well, the wall didn’t go into a museum, but his camera did, a remarkable artifact of a remarkable career. Made of war surplus materials, Pulice’s camera is preserved at the Vancouver Museum. It’s part of their 1950s gallery and is accompanied by a slew of Foncie’s Fotos.

All across Canada and in other countries there are thousands and thousands of Foncie’s Fotos showing thousands and thousands of people striding along the street, captured in motion in unposed moments that may be closer to the spirit of the people shown than any carefully composed studio portrait.

Foncie Pulice was the last of the street photographers. He took his first street photo in 1934 and his last on September 27, 1979. He died January 20, 2003 at age 88, but his work lives on . . . everywhere.(Information on Pulice taken from: http://www.vancouverhistory.ca/archives_foncie.htm)

You can also check out some of Pulice’s photos at the following sites:

Monday, 20 October 2014

Yes !! Oxymora is the plural of Oxymoron in case you didn't know(just came to know very recently)

Life for me is a paradox and what more can be more fun than using Oxymora. An oxymoron is a figure of speech in which words that seem contradictory appear together to form a fun combination. Some of my favorites are Military Intelligence, Original Copies, Exact Estimate, Old News,Living Dead, Deafening Silence and my personal best is Microsoft Works, :D

Monday, 6 October 2014

Abba -Mama Mia

The word "mamma"is a word that has the meaning of mother in almost every language in Europe.It is not always spelled the same way. But mom. mum, mam, mammy, maman, mamma, mor, mutti...The famous Abba group even play in a musical called "Mama Mia".

Mamma mia, here I go againMy my, how can I resist you?Mamma mia, does it show again?My my, just how much I've missed you Yes, I've been brokenhearted Blue since the day we parted Why, why did I ever let you go? Mamma mia, now I really know,My my, I could never let you go.

You see "M" cannot be missed in this songtext!

If you want to participate in the ABC Wednesday meme, please don't forget to refer to Denise Nesbitt, who created ABC.And put the logo in the sidebar or in your post itself. This week we are looking for words beginning with M!